a) The
number of registered professional nurses, licensed practical nurses, and other
nursing personnel assigned to each patient care unit shall be consistent with
the types of nursing care needed by the patients and the capabilities of the
staff. Patients on each unit shall be evaluated near the end of each change of
shift by criteria developed by the nursing service. There shall be staffing
schedules reflecting actual nursing personnel required for the hospital and for
each patient unit. Staffing patterns shall reflect consideration of nursing
goals, standards of nursing practice, and the needs of the patients.
(Section 15(a) of the Act)

b) Current
nursing staff schedules shall be available upon request at each patient care
unit. Each schedule shall list the daily assigned nursing personnel and average
daily census for the unit. (Section 15(b) of the Act)The schedules
shall be provided to the public for inspection in accordance with subsection
(h) of this Section by providing a hard copy of the schedule, which may be in
the form of scheduling logs, schedule postings, print outs of electronic
screens, and sign-up sheets, but shall not contain information identifying a
patient, employee, licensed nurse, or other licensed professional. Hospitals
may also make schedules available by other means in addition to the hard copy
format. The average daily census that must be referenced on each prospective
schedule should reflect the unit's average daily census from the prior fiscal
year data.

c) Hospitals
and the Department shall notify the public of the right to access nurse
staffing information and provide information for obtaining nurse staffing
information. The Department shall include this information on its web site. Hospitals
shall provide this information through one or more communication channels, for
example, disseminate patient education materials or include information on
obtaining nurse staffing information on the hospital web site.

d) The
actual nurse staffing assignment roster for each patient care unit shall be
available upon request at the patient care unit for the effective date of that
roster. (Section 15(b) of the Act)The actual nurse staffing
assignment rosters will be provided to the public for inspection in accordance
with subsection (h) of this Section by providing a hard copy of the roster.
Hospitals may also make rosters available by other means in addition to the
hard copy format. Hospitals shall have the ability to satisfy requests for the
current rosters or schedules by providing the information at each unit.
Requests for non-current rosters or schedules may be satisfied by directing the
requestor from the unit to a hospital location where the information is kept
for the purpose of providing information to the public.

e) All
records required under this Section, including anticipated staffing schedules
and the methods to determine and adjust staffing levels, shall be made
available to the public upon request. (Section 15(c) of the Act)Methods
for determining and adjusting staffing levels may be contained in hospital
policies and procedures, administrative regulations, staff plans, accreditation
standards, collective bargaining agreements and commercially developed patient
acuity tools and protocols. Nothing in this Part requires hospitals to adopt
any particular staffing level methodology. This information shall be made
available to the public for inspection as provided in subsection (h) of this
Section at a central location or at specific patient care units.

f) All
records required under Section 15 of the Act shall be maintained by the
facility for no less than 5 years. (Section 15(d) of the Act)

g) Requests
for information under this Section may be communicated to the hospital by any
reasonable means, including, but not limited to, written, telephone or on-site
inquiries. Hospitals shall be prepared to receive requests and respond
accordingly as outlined in subsection (h) of this Section. Hospitals may
require these requests to be made in writing in order to document the specifics
of each request. If individual hospitals choose to require requests to be made
in writing, the hospitals shall then develop a simple form that will fulfill
this writing requirement.

h) Copies
of schedules, rosters, or other nurse staffing records made available to the
public must not contain information identifying a patient, employee, licensed
nurse, or other licensed professional. Information required to be made
available to the public under this Section shall be made available as follows:

1) For
requests related to an individual person's pending or current inpatient
hospital stay:

A) The
current nursing staff schedule may be requested at any time and shall be made
available within two hours after the request.

B) The
current actual nurse staffing assignment roster may be requested at any time
and shall be made available within 2 hours after the request during normal
business hours during the week and within 4 hours on weekends and evening hours.

2) For
requests unrelated to an individual person's pending or current inpatient
hospital stay:

A) Other
nurse staffing records, including the methods to determine and adjust staffing
levels, historical records, and records in off-site storage, may be requested
at times specified by the hospital, but at least Monday through Friday from 9:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The hospital shall comply with a written request for these
records within seven business days after its receipt. These records shall be
made available at a central location on hospital grounds.

B) If the
hospital is unable to provide the requested records in the time frame required
by subsection (h)(2)(A) of this Section, the hospital shall notify the
individual making the written request within the time limits specified in
subsection (h)(2)(A) of this Section of the reason for the delay and the date
by which the requested records shall be made available.